Results tagged “landmarks”

...for demolitionToday, Houston City Council voted to designate the River Oaks Shopping Center, River Oaks Theater, Alabama Shopping Center, and Alabama Theater as historic landmarks, though it will not afford the structures any protection from Weingarten Realty's current and future decisions to demolish them. According to Historic Houston, there were three dissenting votes from council members Michael Berry (big surprise), Addie Wiseman (who tagged this measure last week), and Pam Holm. Save Our Landmarks invites...

Tuesday, August 7 at 2pm is the last chance for the public to speak about the pending historic landmark status of the River Oaks Shopping Center, River Oaks Theater, Alabama Shopping Center, and Alabama Theater in front of City Council. Members of the public must sign up to speak by 12pm Tuesday by calling the City Secretary Anna Russell (713-247-1840), and people who have already spoken to City Council on this issue may not do...

This morning, Houston City Council designated Old Sixth Ward as the first and only Protected Historic District in the city. This new status will enable the Houston Archaeological and Historical Commission to prohibit the demolition of historic structures within Old Sixth Ward's 33.8 acres. There was only one dissenting vote for this measure, which came from council member/real estate broker Michael Berry. As far as actual limitations on properties within the district, the Greater Houston...

Happy Father's Day! For those of you who have dads, are dads, or know dads, this one's for you, from all of us at the Gothamist network. It was a week of bizarre, embarassing headlines at DCist. The trial of the local administrative law judge who sued his cleaners for $54 million over a pair of missing pants left everyone shaking their heads. Then the capital city was nearly brought to its knees, twice, by...

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! Gothamist headed into the Memorial Day weekend with a number of tasks accomplished. They worried about Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name. They tried...

Save our Landmarks, one of the groups trying to save the River Oaks Shopping Center and Theater and the Alabama Theater/Bookstop, sent out an e-mail update about the River Oaks situation yesterday. Here's a overview of what's going on. Weingarten Realty Investors, which owns all three properties, on Monday began the process to get approval to demolish the curved section of the River Oaks center on the north side of West Gray — the portion...

In her column today, the Chronicle's Lisa Gray proposes a new idea to get the attention of Weingarten Realty Investors, the company that's planning to demolish the historic River Oaks Shopping Center, and of Barnes & Noble, which Weingarten is trying to lure into abandoning its Bookstop store in the Alabama Theater building in favor of a new megastore in the redeveloped River Oaks. The idea: Let's put our money where our mouths are. This...

The Houston Archaeological and Historical Commission voted yesterday to begin the landmark designation process for the River Oaks Shopping Center, River Oaks Theater and Alabama Theater/Bookstop, the three significant Art Deco structures that have been in the news since news broke last summer that Weingarten Realty Investors could be planning to demolish them to make way for new development. The move toward designating the buildings city landmarks comes without Weingarten's approval — the first...

According to the Greater Houston preservation Alliance, the Houston Archaeological and Historical Commission might try to extend its preservation power in a new way: since 1995, the Commission has had the power to designate historic landmarks without owner consent, but has yet to do it. With the endangerment of the River Oaks Theater, River Oaks Shopping Center, and the Alabama Theater by Weingarten Realty Investors, the HAHC will discuss beginning the process of designating these...

The shot from flickr user and Houstonist photo contributor groovehouse. This was too cool not to include, even if we're a day late: On January 25th, 2005 famed architect Philip Johnson passed away, he was 98 years old. Houston is fortunate to be graced with several wonderful buildings designed by Philip Johnson. Two of these are picture above, The University of St. Thomas and The Chapel of St. Thomas. He also designed two amazing...

After about one-third of the original homes in River Oaks have been demolished, the Chronicle has now picked up a story about the will to preserve. The homes in the area, which were largely built by well-known architects for well-known families, have been meeting the same fate as many others in Houston (think Bellaire, West University, and creeping in to older neighborhoods - sixth ward, Heights and beyond). The average house size in the U.S....

Last month, we were hopeful that the city would agree to purchase part of the 11th Street Park in northwest Houston took save it from developers. Fortunately for the nearby residents, and Houston as a whole, the city agreed yesterday to secure the park for $9.2 million. The city is providing a little less than half of the funds for the park; the other money comes from Amegy Bank, the park board, and community fundraisers....

Today's online article in the River Oaks Examiner further shows that Weingarten Realty Investors is continuing its murky stance about what's going on at the River Oaks Shopping Center. It started as a meeting of concerned homeowners who live on Brentwood Drive, just north of the River Oaks Shopping Center, and ended with about the same statement that Weingarten has been notorious for dropping - "We did give them an update on where we were,”...

Here's some good news for those of us interested in keeping some of Houston's past around: In a couple of weeks, the Magnolia Ballroom building downtown will become the first commercial building in Houston to be a protected city landmark. City Council created the protected landmark designation last year; under it, protected properties may never be relocated, unsympathetically altered or demolished. Property owners have to apply and meet certain criteria to have their structures named...

Tonight's the night - the last night of the Gallant Knight, unfortunately. Houstonist has scrounged for parking, queued up for cocktails and, most importantly, shaken our money-maker at the coolest little dive bar in town. Alas and alack, 'twill come to a screeching halt at the close of business this evening — or so we hear from the Chronicle. It is truly a sad day as developers continue wreaking havoc on landmarks and some...

Houston has made a respectable showing in Monopoly’s Here and Now edition. If you’ve been out of the loop, millions of internet users cast votes for months this summer to determine not only which landmarks from 22 major cities would make it onto the new Monopoly board, but the number of votes also determined the position of each city on the board. Houston’s Space Center beat out the Museum District and the Kemah Boardwalk by...

The shot from flickr user and Houstonist photo contributor j-a-x. J-a-x provides us with yet another primo example of what can happen when you combine Houston landmarks with HDR photography. From the man himself: "I think I posted at least one photo of the same scene before, but I thought the clouds yesterday were so impressive that I needed to post this one as well. This was also my first attempt at HDR photography...

The city's Houston Archaeological and Historical Commission voted to send a letter to Andrew Alexander, CEO of Weingarten Realty Investors to encourage saving the endangered art deco buildings. There was no mention of Commission involvement as far as doing more than expressing epistolary concern because, well, they really can't do anything more. Since the buildings aren't listed as landmarks, and do not geographically fall in a historic district, there isn't even any hope of...

The Houston Archaeological and Historical Commission will meet at 2:30 this afternoon to discuss possible steps to take in order to help save the River Oaks Theater and shopping center. The main discussion will be whether or not to try and designate the theater and shopping center as historical landmarks. While the National Register of Historic Places provides historic recognition, it does not protect a building from being demolished by its owners:Listing in the National...

In today's Wall Street Journal, Thaddeus Herrick reports on the continued concern about the fate of several landmarks in Houston. This time, though, there is a solid statement about the developments:David Deason, vice president for development at Barnes & Noble, said the New York-based company intends to close the Bookstop in favor of a "state of the art" facility. But Mr. Deason said the fate of the landmarks is in the hands of Weingarten. The...

Houstonians are banding together in what seems like an unprecedented collaboration for historic preservation. In actuality, many of us have always cared, but this time we have some notice. A sketch from Hermes Architects shows clear plans to demolish the current location of Black-eyed Pea restaurant with an anchor (Barnes & Noble), and the implementation of a three-level parking garage that would run along the back side of the center. According to the Chronicle:...

Galveston played host to the 20th annual American Institute of Architects Sandcastle Competition this weekend. About 20,000 people showed up – luckily, none of them bullied their way through and kicked down the sculptures. The 89 entries put anything that Houstonist tried to build with Galveston’s muddy sand to shame. Entries included a Monopoly: Houston edition, which featured local landmarks (we guess you'd use sand dollars for currency). Many of them were comical, like the...

DCist is screwed in the event of an oil crisis. Not that we're not all screwed in the event of an oil crisis, just D.C. is more screwed. Don't sell your car yet, District resident, a cabbie can kick you to the curb if he doesn't like your address. Not even Metro can save you now. Londonist experiences the London of the future through the wonders of 3D modeling, but while the 3D guys are...

Ever wished something in Houston was on the Monopoly board? Now's your chance to make that happen: Through May 12, the folks at Hasbro are taking votes for properties on the Monopoly Here & Now version, which will come out late this summer. Voters can pick properties for the board from a list of landmarks in 22 cities — their placement will depend on the number of votes they get. In Houston, the choices...

The readers of Texas Highways have named Galveston one of the state's top five vacation destinations — barely. The city ranked fifth on the magazine's list of local getaways, after San Antonio, the Hill Country, Big Bend and South Padre Island. Don't feel bad, little sandbar. It's hard to compete with the Riverwalk, beautiful natural scenery and silicone-filled bikinis. According to KTRK, readers said they like Galveston because it's inexpensive and has "famous landmarks like...